The Stettin. about an hour and a half previous to the capture, he heard the captain say they were going to enter that port; that he, the witness, knew it before that time, from the actions of the master, who disguised the ship in her rigging and by paint, and that the intention was generally known on board a day or two previous to nearing the port. Other suspicious facts accompany the case. No log is furnished from the ship, or found with her, containing any entry after she started from the port of Nassau, May 21, 1862, and steamed out of the harbor, stopping at its entrance for passengers. That entry concludes the log, leaving space for another paragraph to fill up the page, and all the succeeding leaves of the book are blank. There are strong indications, in the interstices between the two leaves, that a full sheet has been abstracted between the last page written on and the succeeding one left blank. The suspicion that further statements of the proceedings of the vessel were originally made, following that narrative of the voyage so commenced, arises from the fact that the official log taken from the vessel is without any entry, so that the vessel is left destitute of all record of her proceedings. Such mutilation of the log might have been effected by an adroit and careful operation, and the case does not stand before the court entitled to intendments favoring an interpretation supporting the fairness and innocency of the transactions on the voyage. The representations of the voyage in the shipping articles, manifest, and charter were palpably fictitious, as there is no reasonable support to the assertion that the vessel was expected to perform the tortuous and protracted navigation so ostentatiously set forth at her outset; and the fact that Adderly & Co., of Nassau, appear at her first stopping place as the umpires of her destiny, although in no way named as consignees, shippers, charterers, or agents, augments the impression that a house so long and so openly occupied in the line of trade which this vessel seems to have been actively pursuing, became actors in the enterprise, on the understanding that it should result in a fraudulent infraction of our belligerent rights. I am clear that the evidence convicts the vessel and cargo of the offence charged, and that the intention and attempt of the voyage were to enter the port of Charleston, in violation of the blockade there subsisting.* *This decree was affirmed, on appeal, by the circuit court, November 14, 1863. The Robert Bruce. THE BRIG ROBERT BRUCE AND CARGO. Vessel and cargo condemned for an attempt to violate the blockade. (Before BETTS, J., December 16, 1862.) BETTS J.: This vessel and cargo were arrested and sent to this port for adjudication as prize of war. A libel was filed in this suit November 6, 1862, and a monition and attachment were duly issued and served thereon on the same day, and returned in court on the 25th of the same month. No one intervening or appearing in the cause, the default of all persons in interest was, on such return, duly taken and recorded. From the papers captured with the vessel, and the preparatory evidence before the prize commissioners, given by the master, the mate, and three seamen of the ship's company on board at the time of her seizure, the facts connected with the voyage and arrest of the vessel and cargo are shown to be these: The vessel had a certificate of registry, issued at Bristol, England, to William Gough, a British merchant, there resident, as owner, on the 7th day of February, 1856. Shipping articles were executed between the master and crew, August 26, 1862, for a voyage "from Hull to Halifax, Nova Scotia, thence to any ports or places in British North America or the United States, or North or South America or the West Indies, and returning to any port on the continent of Europe, or in the Baltic or seas adjacent, (with leave to call for orders,) and terminating finally in the United Kingdom, for a probable period of nine months." No manifest of the cargo, or clearance at the port of departure, accompanies the ship's papers. The ship's log, commences with this voyage, and designates it to be from Hull towards Halifax, and continues the entries day by day, on that route, to October 20, and there ceases. Another private log of the master, found on board the vessel, has entries showing that the Robert Bruce has, since 1859, run repeated trading voyages between Wilmington, North Carolina, and ports in England, the last of which began at Wilmington in December, 1861, and ended at Bristol, January 18, 1862. Several bills of lading from Hull to Halifax were found on board without the names of any consignees. The prize was captured at about 8 o'clock a. m., October 22, 1862, by the United States gunboat Penobscot, at sea, off Charlotte inlet, about one mile from the land, on the coast of North Carolina, and some The Revere, twenty miles west by south from the bar of Cape Fear river. The master says that the vessel sailed directly from Hull to the coast of North Carolina, and intended to enter the port of Wilmington if she could evade the blockade; that he knew of the war and of the blockade of Wilmington, and presumes that his owner did; and that she had been in Wilmington in September, 1861, and brought from there a cargo of turpentine. The evidence convicts the vessel and cargo of two grossly illegal acts, either of which subjects them to condemnation and forfeiture. The voyage was performed under false and simulated papers, representing it to be one from Hull to Halifax, when in truth, by the proofs, it was set on foot at Hull, and prosecuted, to the time of the capture, with intent to violate the blockade of Wilmington, and the vessel was seized in the act of attempting to fulfil that intention. THE SCHOONER REVERE AND CARGO. Vessel and cargo condemned for an attempt to violate the blockade. (Before BETTS, J., December 16, 1862.) BETTS, J.: This vessel and cargo were seized, October 11, 1862, by the United States steamer Monticello, at sea, off the western bar of Cape Fear river, and sent into this port for adjudication. She was British built, and had a certificate of British registry, dated January 29, 1862, issued to Nehemiah H. Clements, of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. The prize was libelled and arrested in this district October 25, 1862, and no person intervening or claiming the vessel or cargo, a decree by default was duly rendered against both, November 11 thereafter. The shipping articles, executed in September, 1862, at Nassau, New Providence, stipulated for a voyage from that port to Baltimore, in the United States, and the vessel was cleared on that voyage, September 15, 1862, with a miscellaneous cargo. She had on board a bill of parcels or invoice, and two bills of lading from Henry Adderly & Co., and a letter from the same, all of the same date, dated at Nassau, and addressed to F. H. Montell & Co., Baltimore. The letter advises Montell & Co. that the articles are shipped to them for sale on account of the shippers, owners. The master, the mate and one seaman were examined in preparatorio before the prize commissioners. The master testified that he was an Englishman by birth, but had resided in Charleston, with his family, The Revere. since 1847. He was appointed to the command of the vessel September 15, 1862, by one of the firm of H. Adderly & Co. He did not know the vessel or the firm before that day. The mate and the second mate belonged to South Carolina. The rest of the crew were English and Italian. About thirty-nine cases of the cargo consisted of haversacks or knapsacks for soldiers. There were 800 sacks of Liverpool salt, 99 barrels of pork, and buckets, brooms, matches, &c., in the cargo. The master knew of the blockade of the southern ports long previously. He commanded the Aigburth when she was seized, a vessel which was condemned in this court for a breach of the blockade. He knew that Wilmington was under blockade when the Revere was arrested. She was captured October 11, 1862, between 11 and 12 o'clock a. m., on the coast of South Carolina, Wilmington light-house bearing north-northeast, eleven or twelve miles off. The master knew that there was a warning on the vessel's register not to enter any of the blockaded ports south of the capes of the Chesapeake, but says that that was before he took command of the vessel. He says that it was understood between him and Adderly & Co., that if he did not see any blockading vessel he should go into Wilmington, or any other port; but if he saw no chance to go in, then he was to proceed to Baltimore. In case he got into any such port, he was to try and dispose of the cargo to the best advantage, and he was to be well remunerated. He supposes that the cargo, if it had been taken into any blockaded port, would have belonged to Adderly & Co. The other two witnesses confirm substantially the testimony of the master. The existence of the blockade was notorious. They supposed that the vessel intended to go into Wilmington, if not prevented by the blockading squadron, and they say that this vessel had run close into the North Carolina coast, and had lain off it some time, after having passed the coast of South Carolina near by, without being able to enfer there. The log affords no explanation of the course of the vessel consistently with the theory that she was pursuing the true navigation from Nassau to Baltimore. Her courses and distances are not noted, and, to judge from the report of the longitude she maintained, she must have hugged the coasts of the insurgent States from the time she reached their latitude, which apparently must have been within the first three days' run; but this conclusion is not very definite, as, during the whole The General C. C. Pinckney. period after her departure from Nassau, no natural objects are noticed on the log, nor are the distances run to the time of capture specified, either by the day or in gross. I think it very palpable, upon the above proofs, that the vessel and cargo were prepared at Nassau, and despatched thence, for the purpose of evading the blockade at Charleston or Wilmington, and that her papers were simulated and falsified, with a view to cover that culpable purpose and attempt. A decree of condemnation and forfeiture must be entered. THE SCHOONER GENERAL C. C. PINCKNEY AND CARGO. Vessel and cargo condemned as enemy property and for a violation of the blockade. The master and owner of the vessel, a resident of Charleston, S. C., purchased her there during the war, and loaded her with the produce of the country and brought her through the blockade of that port, she having papers issued to her by the enemy: Held, that she and her cargo must be condemned, and that a claim by the master that he had always been a loyal citizen of the United States, and had purchased the vessel and cargo as an investment, in order to withdraw himself and his family and property from the enemy country, could not be considered in this court. A loyal citizen of the United States is disqualified from appearing in a prize court to question the legality of the seizure of his property acquired during war in an enemy country by trade with the enemy. (Before BETTS, J., December 18, 1862.) BETTS, J.: This vessel, laden with 94 bales of cotton and 10 barrels of rosin, came out of the port of Charleston under the rebel flag, and was captured about fifty miles from Charleston bar, May 6, 1862, by the United States steamer Ottawa, and sent to this port for adjudication. The papers and proofs and pleadings, consisting of a libel, filed June 4, and a claim and representation by the master and owner, filed June 24, 1862, were submitted to this court for decision, November 26, 1862, with an argument or importunate remonstrance on the part of the owner of the vessel and cargo, by his counsel. The vessel was registered to Herman Koppel, a citizen of the Con federate States, April 18, 1862, having been conveyed to him in Charleston by bill of sale, by the former owner, a citizen and resident of that place, on the 7th day of April, 1862. These papers, and the crew list for the present voyage, and the appointment of the said Koppel as master of the vessel, were authenticated by documents received by the purchaser from the rebel government at Charleston, and delivered up on the capture of the vessel. No fact impeaching the foregoing charac |